---
title: Basic Session State Management
---

This example demonstrates how to create an agent with basic session state management, maintaining a shopping list across interactions using SQLite storage.

## Code

```python session_state_basic.py
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIChat


def add_item(session_state, item: str) -> str:
    """Add an item to the shopping list."""
    session_state["shopping_list"].append(item)  # type: ignore
    return f"The shopping list is now {session_state['shopping_list']}"  # type: ignore


# Create an Agent that maintains state
agent = Agent(
    model=OpenAIChat(id="gpt-5-mini"),
    # Initialize the session state with a counter starting at 0 (this is the default session state for all users)
    session_state={"shopping_list": []},
    db=SqliteDb(db_file="tmp/agents.db"),
    tools=[add_item],
    # You can use variables from the session state in the instructions
    instructions="Current state (shopping list) is: {shopping_list}",
    markdown=True,
)

# Example usage
agent.print_response("Add milk, eggs, and bread to the shopping list", stream=True)
print(f"Final session state: {agent.get_session_state()}")
```

## Usage

<Steps>
  <Snippet file="create-venv-step.mdx" />

  <Step title="Install libraries">
    ```bash
    pip install -U agno openai
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Export your OpenAI API key">

    <CodeGroup>

    ```bash Mac/Linux
      export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"
    ```

    ```bash Windows
      $Env:OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"
    ```
    </CodeGroup> 
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a Python file">
    Create a Python file and add the above code.
    ```bash
    touch session_state_basic.py
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run Agent">
    <CodeGroup>
    ```bash Mac
    python session_state_basic.py
    ```
    
    ```bash Windows
    python session_state_basic.py
    ```
    </CodeGroup>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Find All Cookbooks">
  Explore all the available cookbooks in the Agno repository. Click the link below to view the code on GitHub:

  <Link href="https://github.com/agno-agi/agno/tree/main/cookbook/agents/state" target="_blank">
    Agno Cookbooks on GitHub
  </Link>
</Step>
</Steps>